Overview
- Morigaon district authorities cancelled ongoing land surveys tied to rehabilitation and resettlement for a proposed satellite township on May 18, citing objections from local organisations.
- Tiwa and Bodo tribal groups, backed by the All Tiwa Students’ Union, held multi-day protests in Sindhisar, Naladhara and Bihita to oppose surveys that villagers said threatened ancestral land in the Gobha Tribal Belt.
- The township was planned to support a Tata Group semiconductor project at Jagiroad that has been reported as a ₹27,000-crore investment with an expected high chip output; local opinion is split with some welcoming the plant but opposing the township.
- Protesters and regional politicians have demanded full cancellation of the satellite township rather than a pause in survey activity, and the district order does not amount to formal abandonment of the overall industrial investment.
- The dispute highlights tensions between large industrial projects and tribal land rights in Assam and will likely hinge next on state government decisions about R&R policy, legal protections for tribal lands, and Tata’s final site plans.